Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign predicted in a memo released on Friday that President Trump will face “significant headwinds” in November over his administration’s handling of the economy.
The memo, released by Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Beddingfield and senior adviser Anita Dunn, points out that no party has held the White House with more than 8 percent unemployment and net job losses since World War II.
The Labor Department announced last week that the economy added 2.5 million jobs in May with the unemployment rate dropping to 13.3 percent. The latest numbers have sparked optimism as states continue to reopen after shutting down for weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic, but they still represent the worst employment situation since the Great Depression.
Trump has repeatedly touted last week’s gains, saying they bode well for reopening efforts across the country.
“This is better than a ‘V,’ this is a rocket ship,” Trump said, referring to a quick, V-shaped recovery that erases the losses of a recession.
Biden’s campaign acknowledged the improvement, calling it “good news,” but also noted a number of different factors, including higher unemployment in communities of color and the slowing of median income growth.
The campaign went on to hit Trump, saying he had no economic plan “other than to hang an open sign and hope for the best.”
“Trump has no plan to create new jobs or good-paying jobs, other than to propose more corporate tax cuts,” the memo reads.
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh responded to the memo in a statement to The Hill, hitting Biden over his handling of the economic recovery from the Great Recession during the Obama administration.
“Joe Biden is actively rooting against a recovery, knowing that good news for Americans is bad for him. Biden presided over the slowest economic recovery since World War II, will raise taxes, and will force the job-killing Green New Deal down employers’ throats. On all economic issues, President Trump wins hands-down and voters know it,” Murtaugh said.
The memo comes after reports surfaced last month that Biden was gearing up to make an economic argument against Trump, who has long staked his case on his handling of the economy.
Biden said last month he believes the government’s priority should be handling the coronavirus outbreak correctly.
“The way to fix the economy is to get the public health response correct,” Biden told CNBC. “His slowness is costing lives and costing jobs and costing our ability to rebound.”